Tag: insurance

Protest as 200-year-old oak trees face chop to save house built in 1980s… with villagers accusing insurance giant of ‘eco-terrorism’

Planted in George III’s reign, the three oaks have stood side by side for more than two centuries.

But now two of the trio – known as the Billingshurst Sisters – could be felled over claims they have damaged a nearby house built in the 1980s.

Insurance giant AXA said their roots have caused cracks and subsidence in the home in the West Sussex village and that the 90ft-high trees must be axed.

The firm has overturned a Tree Preservation Order (TPO) and has sought permission to chop them down from the landowner, Billingshurst Parish Council.

However, furious villagers branded the move ‘eco-terrorism’ and urged the council to oppose the application. Their fate will be decided at a meeting tomorrow.

Campaigners accuse AXA of using a sledgehammer to crack a nut – and failing to properly investigate the subsidence.

They say that shallow foundations or other factors may instead be to blame. More than 2,500 villagers have now signed a petition to save the oaks.

Gabi Barrett, who launched the petition, said the trees are ‘vital to the community’s ecosystem’.

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Politico Is Doing Insurance Companies’ Bidding, And It’s Obvious Why

n February, I analyzed how Politico functions as a glorified patronage racket, whereby “reporters serve as a publicity rag for K Street and get paid handsomely for doing so.” Six months later, another such article serves as Example No. 8,579 (or thereabouts) of this swamp machine in action.

In this particular case, Politico published an advertisement — I mean, article — about a potential extension of Obamacare’s enhanced insurance subsidies, which expire at the end of the year. That story ignored sizable evidence of fraud associated with the subsidies, while including not a single quote from a critic or skeptic of such an extension. It looks like a not-too-subtle attempt from Politico to cheerlead for the insurance industry — i.e., its corporate subscribers.

Big Signs of Fraud

The article focused largely on Florida and highlighted that state’s sizable enrollment in Exchange coverage, particularly for households claiming very low incomes, which qualify for the biggest subsidies: 

Florida is one of 10 states that have not expanded Medicaid, so it’s more difficult for some low-income residents to qualify for the government health insurance program. The enhanced subsidies ensure that people who would be eligible under an expansion — those making just above the federal poverty level, with incomes between about $15,600 and $21,600 — can get Obamacare coverage, typically with no premiums. Two-thirds of the 4.6 million Floridians on Obamacare plans are in this gap…

But there’s one big fact Politico omitted: According to one study, while there are nearly 3.1 million Obamacare enrollees claiming income just above poverty in Florida, estimates derived from the Census Bureau suggest that only about 630,000 households actually have incomes in that range. (Disclosure: While I have done work for the Paragon Health Institute, which published the study in question, I had no involvement with this particular report and am writing this article on my own behalf.)

In other words, by one organization’s estimate, more than 2.4 million enrollees — over half of Florida’s total Exchange enrollment — are potentially fraudulent. These individuals may have overstated their income because households with income below the poverty level don’t qualify for subsidies at all, or conversely, they may have understated their income if they make two or three times the poverty level, so they can qualify for bigger subsidies. Alternatively, people could have been enrolled in “free” coverage without their knowledge by insurance brokers seeking commissions, an offense one Florida-based insurance executive pleaded guilty to this April.

Yet Politico mentioned none of this. It advertised the total enrollment in the Florida Exchange, and the billions of dollars in enhanced subsidies that went to Florida, without noting either the significant questions about enrollment discrepancies in Florida’s Exchange population or the fraud — totaling $133.9 million, according to the Justice Department — that one Florida-based individual has already admitted to.

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DOJ questions ex-UnitedHealth doctors in probe into Medicare fraud: report

The Department of Justice questioned former UnitedHealth doctors as it investigates claims that the health insurance giant pushed staffers to make diagnoses that triggered higher Medicare payments, according to a report Wednesday.

The investigation, which dates back to at least last summer, concerns alleged efforts to encourage staffers to record certain diagnoses that trigger higher payments under Medicare Advantage, the program for seniors and the disabled, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Investigators for the Justice Department, FBI, and Health and Human Services Department have been asking for details on patient testing, procedures used to reach certain diagnoses and the process of sending nurses to patients’ homes, according to former UnitedHealth employees.

The Department of Justice did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.

UnitedHealth, whose healthcare executive Brian Thompson was executed by an assassin last year outside a Midtown hotel, said it stands “firmly behind the integrity of our Medicare Advantage business.”

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ICE Is Snooping on Your Medical Bills

The feds are vacuuming up a lot of data on Americans in the name of stopping illegal immigration. Their latest target? Your insurance data.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is now using data from the Insurance Services Office’s ClaimSearch, a private industry service for detecting car and health insurance fraud, according to ICE documents obtained by the tech news site 404 Media on Wednesday. ClaimSearch includes 1.8 billion insurance claims and 58 million medical bills—along with the personal data attached to them, including addresses, tax identification numbers, and license plates.

ClaimSearch’s public policy states that it grants full access to law enforcement agencies “investigating or prosecuting insurance-related crime, or developing background information about a specific individual or list of individuals who have been identified as persons of interest with regard to homeland security activity.”

Verisk, the company that runs ClaimSearch, denied to 404 Media that ICE or the Department of Homeland Security is one of its clients. But the National Insurance Crime Bureau, which controls access to ClaimSearch, did not directly answer whether ICE has access. 404 Media speculated that ICE could have gained access through another government agency.

In March 2025, the Trump administration signed an executive order to tear down “information silos” between federal agencies, and in May, the IRS signed a data-sharing agreement with ICE. The administration has leaned heavily on surveillance contractor Palantir, which has a contract with ICE to facilitate “complete target analysis of known populations.”

ICE has also been tapping into the nationwide network of license plate reading cameras by asking local law enforcement agencies to run searches for specific cars, 404 Media reported earlier this year. Some police departments insisted to 404 Media that the searches were conducted for ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations branch, which handles organized crime and smuggling rather than immigration enforcement.

However, the ICE documents on ClaimSearch specifically said that the data was going to Enforcement and Removal Operations, the branch that handles the detention and deportation of undocumented immigrants.

The immigration cops didn’t just start building their mass surveillance dragnets this year. In 2021, at the start of the Biden administration, The Washington Post reported that ICE was buying utility company records. While Customs and Border Protection (CBP) insisted in a 2018 report that it buys “only anonymized data” from third-party brokers, it has used commercial cell phone data to track and arrest specific people.

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RFK Jr. Announces “Health Insurance Breakthrough” That Affects Nearly 260 Million Americans

In a press conference on Monday, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz announced a landmark agreement with the nation’s largest health insurers to tackle the number one healthcare problem plaguing hundreds of millions of Americans: prior authorization.

Prior authorization is the requirement for doctors and patients to get advance approval from insurance companies BEFORE certain treatments, tests, or procedures are covered. It was meant to control costs, but for 85% of Americans, it’s become a serious barrier to care.

“Doctors like myself are continually struggling with this issue,” Dr. Oz said, explaining how the bureaucratic process not only delays treatment but deeply frustrates both providers and patients.

In 2023 alone, Medicare Advantage (which covers about 32 million people) initially denied 3.2 million prior authorization requests. Dr. Oz made clear these are not just numbers: they represent “individuals who often, in the most vulnerable time in their lives, needed something done and it was denied.”

The burden also falls heavily on physicians. On average, doctors spend 12 hours per week on paperwork, handling about 40 prior authorization cases weekly. Dr. Oz said it contributes to burnout, slows down care, and “erodes public trust in the health care system.”

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UnitedHealth Shares Drop After Report Alleges Secret Bonus Payments To Nursing Homes For Cutting Hospital Transfers

UnitedHealth Group shares dropped as much as 7.5% in premarket trading Wednesday in New York, following a Guardian investigation that revealed the health insurer shelled out “Premium Dividend” and “Shared Savings” bonuses to nursing homes that reduced hospital transfers for sick residents. 

The Guardian’s investigation is based on thousands of confidential corporate and patient records obtained through sources, public records requests, and court filings, along with interviews with nearly two dozen current and former UnitedHealth and nursing home employees, as well as two whistleblower declarations submitted to Congress.

The report offers a new snapshot into UnitedHealth’s daily operations at nearly 2,000 nursing homes across the country, where it manages Medicare Advantage coverage for more than 55,000 long-term residents. 

Here are some of the key findings from the report:

  • UnitedHealth stationed in-house medical teams at nearly 2,000 nursing homes, incentivizing them to lower hospitalizations through financial rewards like “Premium Dividend” and “Shared Savings” payments tied to hospitalization rates.
  • Internal records show UnitedHealth monitored nursing homes using “admits per thousand (APK)” metrics and set “budgets” for hospitalizations. Facilities with high APKs were denied bonuses.
  • In multiple documented cases, patients were denied urgent hospital care, leading to serious harm, including permanent brain damage. Whistleblowers say these incidents were hidden or minimized.
  • Nurse practitioners were pressured to push “Do Not Resuscitate” (DNR) orders, even when patients had previously expressed the desire for life-saving treatments.
  • UnitedHealth also incentivized increased enrollment in its Institutional Special Needs Plans by offering large payments to nursing homes, which in some cases leaked confidential patient data to help sales teams directly solicit families—often bypassing consent rules.

The Guardian noted: 

In several cases identified by the Guardian, nursing home residents who needed immediate hospital care under the program failed to receive it, after interventions from UnitedHealth staffers. At least one lived with permanent brain damage following his delayed transfer, according to a confidential nursing home incident log, recordings and photo evidence.

A current UnitedHealth nurse practitioner, who recently submitted a congressional complaint regarding the nursing home program, stated:

“No one is truly investigating when a patient suffers harm. Absolutely no one.

“These incidents are hidden, downplayed and minimized. The sense is: ‘Well, they’re medically frail, and no one lives for ever.'”

A former national UnitedHealth executive said:

“APK drove everything. You gain profitability by denying care, and when profitability suffers for the shareholders, that’s when people get crazy and do things that are not appropriate.”

Two current and three former UnitedHealth nurse practitioners said that UnitedHealth managers pressured them to persuade Medicare Advantage members to change their “code status” to DNR, even when patients had clearly expressed a desire to receive all available life-saving treatments.

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Taxpayers on the Hook for Sexual Abuse Committed by Government Employees

There is nothing more infuriating to me than adult predators who exploit and sexually abuse children.

As a former president of the board of a summer camp, it had to pay high premiums for liability insurance. Not for the mud bowl, not for rock climbing or rappelling, not for the pool. It was expensive because of the high number of claims for child molestation in that industry that had to be borne by all the other policyholders. And having the insurance is a must, as one huge claim could wipe out an entire organization.

Sexual predators not only impact the price of summer camp, they also do the same for school districts, juvenile halls, and social services providing foster care. Because some governments have not acquired adequate insurance for those services where employees interact with children, the costs are then borne by the taxpayers within the boundaries of the municipality.

In recent years, to address this abhorrent crime, you and I have become indirectly liable for the perpetrators. All that could be done was to hope that this reprobate behavior was not as prevalent as suspected. However, recent legislation upped the ante.

At a recent “California Insider” networking event, I introduced myself as someone who “predicts train wrecks in slow motion.” In 1994, I accurately predicted the Orange County Investment Pool implosion that led to the largest Chapter 9 bankruptcy filing at that time in United States history. But don’t think I get any joy out of being correct.

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WHOA: Tucker Carlson Reveals He “Immediately” Sold His Truck After Spotting a ‘Disturbing’ Message on Vehicle’s Infotainment Screen

Tucker Carlson caused a stir in a recent interview that may cause some Americans to do a double take on the vehicles they are driving.

During an interview with automotive designer and internet personality Casey Putsch last week, Tucker mentioned that he is a lifelong fan of Chevrolet trucks but felt he had to “immediately” sell his latest one after spotting a disturbing message on the car’s dashboard.

“I bought a truck last year…A Chevy truck, which I’ve always had, and I was at a gas station, he said. “And all of a sudden at a gas station, it says, ‘Stop, we’re downloading information from the internet.’”

“While you were driving?” Putsch asked.

“No, I was stopped,” Tucker replied. “I sold the car immediately. I brought it back and sold it.”

“They want all your data to provide to insurance companies to wreck your life, I’m sure,” Putsch responded.

“Insurance companies will be the downfall of cars and driving. I can guarantee it.”

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Bondi’s DOJ Launches Fraud Investigation of UnitedHealth, Same Insurer Whose CEO Was Assassinated

The Justice Department, now headed by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, is reportedly investigating Medicare billing practices from UnitedHealth Group, a move which comes weeks after the assassination of Brian Thompson, the chief executive of subsidiary UnitedHealthcare.

The attorneys are reportedly examining possible civil fraud linked to UnitedHealth Group’s practices for recording diagnoses that allow for extra payments to Medicare Advantage plans, according to a Friday exclusive report from The Wall Street Journal.

That includes potential fraud at physician groups owned by UnitedHealth Group.

Insurers receive payments under the Medicare Advantage system to oversee benefits for enrollees, but the payments increase when certain diagnoses are discovered.

That creates an incentive to diagnose more ailments and receive more payouts.

The Journal previously reported that Medicare paid UnitedHealth Group billions of dollars for “questionable diagnoses.”

Justice Department attorneys have been interviewing some of the same medical providers mentioned in the outlet’s investigations.

The Justice Department is also pursuing an antitrust probe against UnitedHealth Group, and has filed to prevent the insurance behemoth’s $3.3 billion potential acquisition of home healthcare company Amedisys.

The reported civil fraud investigation is separate from those cases.

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Mayor Adams Drops Truth Bomb About How Luigi Mangione Was Radicalized, and Dems Won’t Like It

It’s been nearly two weeks since UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was shot and killed in midtown Manhattan. Thankfully, his alleged killer, Luigi Mangione, 26, was captured after someone recognized him at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pa.

While the evidence all appears to confirm Mangione is the killer, in a lot of ways, it just doesn’t make sense why this kid, who grew up privileged and went to an Ivy League school and everything, would be driven to murder.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams has something to say on that issue that the Democrats won’t be happy about. Adams bluntly described a disturbing trend he’s witnessed among young people in America. Speaking candidly about the radicalization of youth, he addressed the troubling case of Mangione, drawing a direct line between the shooter’s upbringing and the toxic influence of the education system that led to his violent actions.

Adams was quick to point out that Mangione’s background doesn’t fit the typical profile of someone prone to radicalization. “Ivy League, grew up in an affluent household,” he said, emphasizing the disconnect between the shooter’s privileged life and his eventual descent into hatred. 

“His manifesto clearly is showing some signs of hating,” Adams continued, underscoring that even those with seemingly ideal circumstances can be consumed by a dangerous ideology.

The mayor then turned his focus to the broader problem at hand: the radicalization of America’s youth. “Our children are being radicalized,” Adams stated, “I said this over and over again, and everybody’s like, you know, ‘What are you talking about, Eric?’” His frustration with the lack of attention to the issue was clear, but his message was undeniable. This isn’t just a fringe problem; it’s becoming a mainstream crisis.

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